I submitted that a little too quickly. His website has examples of different recordings. The optically captured recordings, after being run through a noise filter process are remarkably clear.

Yeah. Even before noise reduction, the optical "Goodnight Irene" sounds better than vinyl, and after it, it's on par with the CD. Even the excitingly-named "sound of optically read groove amplitudes before differentiation into velocities" sounds decent.

The two researchers later augmented their technique so they could retrieve audio information from even older wax cylinders. The cylinders were more problematic than the discs because they are easily damaged

balthan:The two researchers later augmented their technique so they could retrieve audio information from even older wax cylinders. The cylinders were more problematic than the discs because they are easily damaged

// The only pure sound is banging mammoth bones on rocks, you techno-turds!

Well you just try to put on a blank CD next time you want to give the room some class. Me, I have a full collection of silent records for that natural polyvinyl warmth without some squabbling toady going on in a whalelike fashion.

So you're supposing that they declared the method worked, published that result, and got a MacArthur grant, all without ever playing back the result of the restoration method to verify this?

Man, apparently science is just straight-up magic in your world, I bet researchers there save a bundle since they just need a robe and wizard hat instead of a multimillion dollar imager to nondestructively analyze delicate old media.

// The only pure sound is banging mammoth bones on rocks, you techno-turds!

Well you just try to put on a blank CD next time you want to give the room some class. Me, I have a full collection of silent records for that natural polyvinyl warmth without some squabbling toady going on in a whalelike fashion.

You know what's sad, I honestly don't know if you're serious or mocking the vinyl-only folks. That's how absurd that is.

Actually, it sounds as if he is getting an award (and a grant) for his IRENE system, which has been around for about a decade now.

But optical pickups aren't new. LP players with a laser stylus have been available since the late '80s. My understanding is that they're good in that they can work around defects in a groove, but that the disc must be thoroughly cleaned beforehand as they don't self-clean the groove of dust. I imagine that the IRENE system might have the same problem.

Lokasenna:It's amazing how cranky some people will get when you try to explain that "better" actually means "distorted".

What about the idea that recordings were mastered to that distortion at the time and playing them on higher-fidelity equipment removes the period sound? Or do you hate people playing baroque compositions on period instruments using different tunings than 440-A as well?

theorellior:Lokasenna: It's amazing how cranky some people will get when you try to explain that "better" actually means "distorted".

What about the idea that recordings were mastered to that distortion at the time and playing them on higher-fidelity equipment removes the period sound? Or do you hate people playing baroque compositions on period instruments using different tunings than 440-A as well?

Depends. Are they insisting that their specific brand of catgut strings and use of 480-A is, objectively, the best way to listen to all music ever? Because that's what the audiophile argument boils down to. Your analogy would technically require people to own, say, four or five different record players and stereo setups to properly simulate the equipment available when a given recording was made.

On the other hand, digitally storing the recording at a quality higher than period equipment can play back leaves us with the option of listening to it however we want. We know enough about the types of distortion and filtering going on that a software/hardware "Vintage In A Box" solution is entirely possible.

I'm sure someone out there has their living room kitted out with a computer running into a vinyl-pressing machine so they can have the convenience of working with FLAC but the... ahem... "pristine tone" of a $50,000 amp loaded with NOS tubes from some abandoned factory they purchased in Detroit just for the sake of having their own supply.